Awards, accolades and elations are still pouring in for South Dakota School of Mines women’s basketball standout Melanie Vedvei

By Brad Blume
Sports Information Director
South Dakota School of Mines
RAPID CITY --- The awards, accolades and elations are still pouring in for South Dakota School of Mines women’s basketball standout Melanie Vedvei. The Industrial Engineering graduate most recently received another huge honor, being named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association State Farm Coaches’ All-American Basketball Team as an NAIA Honorable Mention selection.
Vedvei went down with a season ending knee injury in early January. She tried to come back at the end of the season but the injury was too severe.
Vedvei, a native of Lake Preston, S.D., still earned a long list of accolades starting with a second straight selection to the NAIA Div. II All American First Team. She also earned NAIA Scholar Athlete honors, was a DAC first team selection and received DAC scholar honors and earned the NAIA Region III Dr. LeRoy Walker NAIA Championships of Character Award in her final season as a Lady Hardrocker.
The Mines standout also holds a large number of SD School of Mines women’s basketball records. She is the second all time leading scorer with 1,972 points. She also has every steals record that the Lady Hardrockers have --- career steals (420), steals in a season (124) and steals in a game (11). She also holds the record for most career free throws made at 555 as well as owning the most field goals attempted in a game at 36.
Vedvei finished the year with 399 points, 121 total rebounds, 110 assists and 87 steals.
This year’s team marks the first State Farm Coaches’ All-America Team, as Eastman Kodak held the previous sponsorship for 25 years. Selection committees in each of the six WBCA geographical regions select 10 of the top women’s basketball players in the nation to be honored.
Founded in 1981, the WBCA promotes women's basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game as a sport for women and girls. For additional information about the WBCA, please visit wbca.org.

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

By Brad Blume
Sports Information Director
South Dakota School of Mines
RAPID CITY --- The awards, accolades and elations are still pouring in for South Dakota School of Mines women’s basketball standout Melanie Vedvei. The Industrial Engineering graduate most recently received another huge honor, being named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association State Farm Coaches’ All-American Basketball Team as an NAIA Honorable Mention selection.
Vedvei went down with a season ending knee injury in early January. She tried to come back at the end of the season but the injury was too severe.
Vedvei, a native of Lake Preston, S.D., still earned a long list of accolades starting with a second straight selection to the NAIA Div. II All American First Team. She also earned NAIA Scholar Athlete honors, was a DAC first team selection and received DAC scholar honors and earned the NAIA Region III Dr. LeRoy Walker NAIA Championships of Character Award in her final season as a Lady Hardrocker.
The Mines standout also holds a large number of SD School of Mines women’s basketball records. She is the second all time leading scorer with 1,972 points. She also has every steals record that the Lady Hardrockers have --- career steals (420), steals in a season (124) and steals in a game (11). She also holds the record for most career free throws made at 555 as well as owning the most field goals attempted in a game at 36.
Vedvei finished the year with 399 points, 121 total rebounds, 110 assists and 87 steals.
This year’s team marks the first State Farm Coaches’ All-America Team, as Eastman Kodak held the previous sponsorship for 25 years. Selection committees in each of the six WBCA geographical regions select 10 of the top women’s basketball players in the nation to be honored.
Founded in 1981, the WBCA promotes women's basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game as a sport for women and girls. For additional information about the WBCA, please visit wbca.org.

The work from which this copy was made did not include a formal copyright notice. This work may be protected by U. S. copyright law (Title 17, United States Code), which governs reproduction, distribution, public display, and other uses of protected works. Uses may be allowed with permission from the copyright holder, if the copyright on the work has expired, or if the use is fair use or within another legal exemption. The user of this work is responsible for compliance with the law.